Road Trips and Stuff

This week long spontaneous road trip was awesome. Despite going alone I met new people, gained new experiences, saw amazing things. The feeling of being free of everything was very tangible. This is something I’ll do again, without question. The only things that I would change would be to go with a companion (or a couple) and to go for more time, because despite being able to only have to manage myself, being able to split drive time and… talk to people… is nice. 

The thing about going on road trips is that we can see as things change - and not only geographically. The way food begins to taste different. The way you start to see people’s faces change. Accents and attitudes. Ideals and beliefs. Road trips come with ups and downs (there are always more ups than downs) but more than anything it slows down a person’s psyche so they can get in tune with the place they are, not the places they’ve been or the places they’re going. It teaches us to live in the moment. 

I’ve been thinking about future trips/ excursions that I’d like to plan, and I’d love your feedback on these ideas. 

1) Seattle -> San Diego: Seattle, Portland, The Pacific Northwest (forests, food, etc), Redwood, San Francisco, PCH, LA, San Diego. I’d love to do it in a convoy of Airstream trailers. I think it’d be super cool to go with a bunch of photographers/ video people and then folks who’d model for us. We’d do photo shoots and videos along the way. (2 weeks)

2) London -> Inverness - Fly into London, see the sights, eat the food and then go up through Scotland. Highlands, Lowlands, lachs, scotch, castles, Hadrian’s Wall, and everything in between. Driving or trains would be cool. Definitely sleeping in inns and castles the whole trip. (1.5 Weeks)

3) Paris to Istanbul: Trains, Cars, Boats. Fly to Paris and make our way through several different stops, including, but not limited to: Paris, Nuremberg, Prague, Budapest, mythical castles and forests, and then a jump to Istanbul where Europe meets the Middle East. Give yourself over to the fates - people that you meet along the way, camping when necessary, sleeping in castles and small hotels. (3-4 weeks)

4) Alaska -> Argentina - I mean… how magical is this? The top of North America to the bottom of South America. Think of everything you’d see along the way? Native cultures, amazing flavors, rain forests, ruins, etc. I’d like to do this on a Motorcycle in the style of Ewan and Charlie’s “Long Way” series. If you’ve never heard of it, google Long Way Round and Long Way Down. It’ll get your adventure adrenaline pumping. Camping, I think, almost the whole way. This would take  months. At least 2 probably more like 3.

Mumbai -> Ho Chi Minh - Again, this is a long excursion, but one that would take you through India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam. Going through jungles and mountains, seeing the trail of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, as they crossed through the ancient world trading spices and silks, knowledge and cooking. This would be an amazing adventure and you know the food would be AWESOME. I think camping, small inns and maybe even in people’s domiciles would be cool. I think probably 2-3 months would be a good amount of time for this as well. 

There’s nothing like an adventure. I can’t wait to be back out on the open road. I hope you guys can join me next time.